The American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, which organize the Tony Awards, aren’t the only organizations that bestow awards to the best Broadway productions and performers each year. Since 1955, Drama Desk has hosted an annual awards ceremony to honor shows and individuals not only on Broadway, but also off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. The voting body for the awards includes New York-based theater journalists, editors, critics, and publishers.
Sometimes called “the Golden Globes of theater,” the Drama Desk Awards have changed considerably over the years. Acting awards were limited to lead performers until 1974, following which there were eight categories separated by gender, role (lead and featured), and production type (play and musical) until 2022. In 2023, Drama Desk retired these categories and introduced four gender-neutral categories, including a lead and featured performer award for plays and musicals. Two winners are selected for each category rather than one.
Here’s a look at the first six winners of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play.
Sean Hayes (Good Night, Oscar) and Jessica Chastain (A Doll’s House)
Sean Hayes and Jessica Chastain were the first two winners in the revamped Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play category, earning the honors for Good Night, Oscar and A Doll’s House, respectively. For Hayes, who starred in the production as pianist and character actor Oscar Levant, it was his first Drama Desk nomination and victory. He also won the Tony for Best Actor in a Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play for the same role. Primarily known for the TV series Will & Grace, Hayes previously appeared on Broadway in An Act of God (2016) and Promises, Promises (2010). He also hosted the 64th Annual Tony Awards in 2010.
Chastain’s starring role in A Doll’s House was her first Broadway appearance since 2012. She starred in Amy Herzog’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play as Nora Helmer, a middle-class wife and mother who secretly borrows money and commits forgery to save her husband’s life; the repercussions of her actions reveal shattering truths about her marriage. Chastain was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, which ultimately went to Jodie Comer for her performance in Prima Facie.
As of 2025, Hayes is the only male performer to win in the gender-neutral category. Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi), Will Brill (A Case for the Existence of God), Audra McDonald (Ohio State Murders), and Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman) were among the other 2023 nominees for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play.
Jessica Lange (Mother Play) and Sarah Paulson (Appropriate)
Coincidentally, former American Horror Story castmates Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson were the two Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play winners in 2024. Paulson, who starred in several seasons of the FX show, credits Lange for helping her get cast in the first season.
Lange won the Drama Desk Award for her performance as matriarch Phyllis in Mother Play, Paula Vogel’s 1960s-era play about love, family, and forgiveness. She also earned a Tony nomination for the role. It was Lange’s second Drama Desk win; she previously won Outstanding Actress in a Play in 2016 for Long Day’s Journey into Night.
Paulson, meanwhile, won for her portrayal of Antoinette Lafayette in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate, which also won the Drama Desk and Tony Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play. Paulson, starring on Broadway for the first time since 2010, also won the Tony for Best Actress in a Play.
William Jackson Harper (Primary Trust), Rachel McAdams (Mary Jane), and Leslie Odom Jr. (Purlie Victorious) were among the other Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play nominees in 2024.
Laura Donnelly (The Hills of California) and Sarah Snook (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Laura Donnelly and Sarah Snook are the most recent recipients of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play. Patsy Ferran (A Streetcar Named Desire), Louis McCartney (Stranger Things: The First Shadow), and Olivia Washington (Wine in the Wilderness) were among the runners-up.
Donnelly, who won for her dual role of Veronica and Joan in Jez Butterworth’s The Hills of California, also won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play and was nominated for the Tony for Best Actress in a Play. This was her fourth appearance in a Broadway show and first since The Ferryman in 2018.
Snook, who became more widely known following her performance in HBO’s Succession, won for The Picture of Dorian Gray, Kip Williams’ adaptation of the classic Oscar Wilde novel. Snook played all 26 characters in the solo show, which ran for 15 previews and 88 performances at the Music Box Theatre. She also won the Tony for Best Actress in a Play, Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.
“It felt like a place that I’ve always been growing up, and I certainly pursued TV and film in my twenties, but I grew up doing theater, and it’s where I really always wanted to come back to,” Snook said of her Broadway debut after winning the Drama Desk Award. “So it’s really special.”